On the Other Side of the Glass
by lemonygoodness1998
Summary: When Reaper and the rest of her marine biology class come across an injured merman, she's shocked. She thought that she was the only freak whose body turned scaly when it touched the water. Levi can't believe he's been caught, and by a group of puny humans at that. But that one human seems different from the others... She can hear him.
1. Chapter 1

CHAPTER 1

Reaper's POV

One thing about me: I hate the water.

Another thing about me: I hate Hanji fucking Zoe's teaching methods. Why? Because, as my marine biology teacher, she was able to force me to come to the beach.

Shiganshina, South Carolina, was a coastal town, bordered on its east side by a swath of the Atlantic Ocean. The town itself was small and quaint, populated by about ten thousand people all in all, and that was including the seasonal occupants known as Snow Birds – old people who came to the South from the snowy North during the winter. The only real attraction there was the school, Sina High School, one of the country's most exceptional private schools – if by exceptional you mean full of assholes and a fucking insane marine biology professor with too much time on her hands.

I was thinking about just how insane she was as I walked along the beach at three in the morning with my classmates and Hanji. The professor in question held a Styrofoam cooler full of hatched baby sea turtles in each hand, and Marco Bodt cradled another cooler in his arms. Everyone but me was barefoot, digging their toes into the wetly packed sand or kicking up sand dunes as they laughed loudly. I walked along the back edge of the beach, far away from the water, and watched my classmates mess around, pushing and laughing and telling jokes. I tightened my ponytail and stuck my hands in my pockets.

Eventually Hanji put up her hands, signaling for everybody to stop walking.

"Alright, everyone!" she called happily. "Form walls!"

My classmates immediately configured themselves into two even lines, kneeling down in the sand. I knelt at the back near Hanji and beside Jean Kirstein. Hanji gently placed her two coolers in the sand before taking the third from Marco and coming to kneel down at the back of the tunnel we had created with our two lines.

"I'm about to release the turtles!" she said. Everyone made noises of recognition.

Hanji took one cooler and removed its top, gently turning it on its side to allow the baby turtles to escape. Tiny creatures too cute to be reptilian scrambled over the edge of the cooler and began making their stuttering ways towards Armin, who, unsurprisingly, was in the water with a flashlight to guide the turtles out to sea.

We repeated this twice before all the little turtles were in the water. When we were done Hanji whooped in triumph, pumping her fist in the air and kicking up sand with the top of her foot. The whole company – minus me – copied her whoop, though no one else kicked up any sand.

"Alright, team!" she exclaimed. "Good work! Let's head back to the bus!"

Everyone turned around and began walking back up the beach to find their shoes. I felt something wet on my leg and immediately brushed it off with the sleeve of my sweatshirt. Now was not the time to get wet.

I looked to my left and saw Armin walking beside me, his pants rolled up and legs sopping wet. I instinctually stepped away from him to avoid getting wet.

"What is it?" he asked when he saw me take that step.

"You know I don't like the water, Armin," I said, shoving my hands deeper into my sweatshirt's front pocket.

"You don't even like being wet?"

I shook my head.

"Not one bit," I lied. "Showers are horrible for me."

"I don't get it. How can you not like the ocean?"

"It's not that I don't like the ocean. It's that I don't like being _in_ the ocean."

Armin shrugged and I watched as the ocean breeze ruffled his blonde hair. I eyed his wet legs cautiously.

"Why did you sign up for such a hands-on class if you don't like getting wet?" he asked as if I hadn't told him the answer a million times before.

"It was the only class that would fit in my schedule," I said.

My friend shrugged again and pushed a piece of hair behind his ear. He looked out at the ocean and sighed.

"Sometimes I wish I was a fish," he admitted. "I wouldn't ever have to leave."

"If you were a fish you'd have such a tiny brain that you wouldn't care where you were," I said dryly. He stuck out his tongue at me.

By that time we had made it to the bus. The first ones there piled in the back, laughing and talking loudly. I said goodbye to Armin and went to find Hanji, who I discovered on the other side of the bus sending out a text. When she saw me she hit the power button on her phone and dropped it in her pocket, smiling brightly at me. I noticed that one of her hands was wet, probably from helping stray turtles into the ocean.

"Hey, Reaper!" she said cheerily. I couldn't help but smile at her. As much as I hated the fact that she could make me come to the shore I couldn't quite hate her. "What's up?"

"I came on my bike. I live right around here," I said. "Do I have to ride back to the school?"

"No, of course not," she said. "Go on home and get some sleep. Just don't forget that we're coming back tomorrow at the same time."

I nodded.

"Thank you, Hanji," I said. She smiled brightly and the moonlight glinted off her glasses eerily, giving me the impression that she could kill a man without blinking.

"Not a problem."

I turned around and waved at everyone through the bus windows. Only Eren, Armin, and Mikasa noticed and waved back. Trudging up a particularly steep sand dune I found my bike perched atop it. I set it upright and carried it over to the pavement, shaking sand out of my shoes as I went. Once on the pavement I got on the bike and began pedaling away. The bus soon passed me, leaving me alone on the seaside road.

I was accustomed to taking midnight walks or bike rides along the beach, so navigating the backroads in the dark wasn't a big deal. I slowed down my pace and looked to my left at all the beach houses, their bright colors washed out by the moon. I could already see my house, an off-white two-story on stilts that was the envy of the neighborhood. Instead of turning left and going down the side street I kept going, looking to my right and out at the night-blackened ocean. I sighed. It really was beautiful.

And then I saw it. It was tiny and in the distance and almost unnoticeable, but it was there. It looked like a head sticking out of the water, and from the way it stood straight up it didn't seem to be disembodied. I clamped down on my brake handles and my bike skidded to an abrupt halt in front of a cliff-like drop off. My jaw clenched.

It was just a swimmer. Stupid kids were always going skinny dipping. That's all it was.

The thing was that there were no other people out there, and skinny dipping tended to be a group activity. It was just the one head – maybe it was just trash. The oceans weren't all that polluted in Shiganshina, but it wasn't impossible that an empty milk jug had gotten into the water.

But then it turned around, and I could tell there were eyes even in the dark. The whites were almost glowing, giving me a very clear picture of steely grey irises. Those were human eyes.

The eyes widened when they saw me looking at them, and the head instantly disappeared under the water. I waited for several minutes, but it didn't reappear. But it _had_ to. This person had to breathe. I vaguely wondered if I had imagined the whole thing, but then I saw a tail fin and my heart froze in my chest.

I only saw it for a brief moment, but I automatically knew that it wasn't a normal fish. The fin was parallel to the water like a whale's, but it was far too small and thin to be a whale. It looked too familiar and I was going to hyperventilate if I stared for any longer.

I blinked several times and then the head was back, those glowing human eyes peeking partially out of the water. I could tell that whoever or _whatever_ this was was staring at me. I felt the telltale shiver run down the back of my neck and my hands squeezed tighter on the brakes.

"Hello?" I called. The eyes widened again and the head disappeared.

I shook my head, still not fully believing that I had seen what I had seen.

"If you can hear me…" I trailed. "Never mind."

I waited for several more minutes, but I saw neither the tail not the head emerge from the water. The waves hit the edge of the cliff and I looked down the four feet into the ocean. All I could see was black.

I unclenched my hands and released the brakes, placing my feet back on the pedals and leaving, not daring to look back out into the water.

When I got home neither of my parents were waiting up for me. I tiptoed past their bedroom and up the stairs, eventually reaching my bedroom. I grabbed my pajamas (which consisted of a pair of flannel pants and a long-sleeved shirt that used to be my father's) and headed into the bathroom, then plugged the tub and turned on the water.

I couldn't get that… person? Animal? I couldn't get whatever it was out of my head. Those eyes had been too bright and too silver and too _intelligent_. And the tail… it was too similar to-

I must have been thinking for quite some time, because the bathwater was suddenly touching my hand. I quickly retracted my arm and wiped the appendage on my sweatshirt, then stripped myself of my clothing. I dumped my clothes into my laundry hamper before grabbing a towel and placing it beside the tub.

I grabbed onto the sides of the tub and carefully lowered myself in, watching as the bathwater rose as I settled in.

It was instantaneous. I felt the scales begin to bubble up along my legs and hips and I gripped the sides of the tub even more firmly, nearly cracking the porcelain in the process. I knew my knuckles would be white but my eyes were clenched to tightly to see. I felt the nerves rewiring themselves and the scales coming out and my thighs fusing together and my feet stretching out and thinning out and I threw my head back, biting the inside of my cheeks to keep from crying out and waking my parents. The last thing I needed was them to come bursting through the bathroom door, knocking it off its hinges and uncovering their mutant fish freak of a daughter doing her mutant fish freak thing.

When it was done I could tell; there was no more cramping and no more pressure, something for which I was incredibly grateful. I let my eyes slide open.

There, where my legs had once been, was a single long appendage. It was solid black and gleaming and scaly and it had wispy fins at its bottom and along its sides, not unlike those of a beta fish. I flexed a muscle and watched at the fin where my feet had once been flopped about against the side of the tub.

The tail stuck haphazardly out of the tub, given that the appendage itself was probably over four feet long. I finally let go of the sides of the vessel and massaged my aching hands, still staring at my tail.

It was exactly like the one I had seen in the ocean earlier that night.

I leaned back against the tub and pressed my palms against my eyes before trailing my fingertips down to the sides of my neck. I found the ridges of gills.

Maybe I wasn't the only one.

Levi's POV

It had seen me. I was sure of it.

I ducked back down under the water, only coming up when I heard the clicks of that thing it was riding on disappear. It was gone.


	2. Chapter 2

CHAPTER 2

Reaper's POV

The next night I showed up at the beach at around two-thirty. The ocean was inky black and crashing against the shore, sea foam occasionally sticking to the coarse sand. I parked my bike on the same sand dune before sitting down beside it. I waited for about fifteen minutes for the bus to arrive, but it never did.

My phone buzzed in my pocket, so I fished it out and typed in the passcode. It was a group text from an unknown number.

 _Hey, everybody! The turtles didn't hatch like I thought they would, so go ahead and stay home! Be sure to be awake at around this time tomorrow! – Hanji_

Hanji. That made sense. She must have gotten our numbers from the school directory. Several texts from Armin and Reiner and Eren and Jean, among others, came in, responding to Hanji's original text. I didn't reply and tucked my phone back into the pocket of my sweatshirt.

I sighed. Of course I would get dragged out there for nothing. I was about to press on my knees and stand up, but something caught my eye out in the water.

It was the head, and those eyes were looking directly at me once again. The creature was in the same place it had been the previous night, though I had moved. I stared back for several seconds before blinking slowly. It blinked back.

I raised my hand slightly and waved. The creature or person or whatever ducked back down, the tail coming up again and disappearing down into the water after the head. I rubbed my eyes.

"I'm going crazy," I said to myself, pushing against the ground and getting myself standing. I picked my bike up and placed it on the pavement before going to straddle it. Just on a whim I looked back out to where the creature had been, and I wasn't disappointed. The head was back above the water and staring at me.

I blinked and it was gone.

" _Definitely going crazy_ ," I muttered half-heartedly.

Why was it so hard to believe that a water-swelling humanoid creature existed when I myself could turn into a water-dwelling humanoid creature? It wasn't.

I placed my feet on the pedals and pedaled away towards my house.

I showed up at the beach again on Sunday night. Or Monday morning, given that it was three a.m.. Hanji led my classmates and I down the beach to the place where we had released the turtles on Friday night, taking large, clumsy steps and kicking up sand as she went. My classmates were talking loudly, Eren and Mikasa seeming to be the only ones having a normal quiet conversation.

Eren and Mikasa were alone. That meant that Armin was…

"Hey, Reaper," he said from beside me. I jumped slightly but managed to calm myself down.

"Hey, Armin," I said. "What's going on?"

"Just wanted to say hi."

"Well, you've said it. Now what?"

He laughed quietly, looking down at his feet.

"I guess I'll just try to strike up a conversation, then," he said.

I looked out at the inky black ocean, probably looking for the head or the tail.

"What do you want to talk about?" Armin asked.

 _Do you believe in mermaids?_

"I don't care," I said instead.

Armin took it upon himself to outline several essays he had recently read about the types of turtles we were releasing – loggerheads. He told me about South Carolina's efforts to help them and that they were omnivorous and that they could live from 47 to 67 years and other various facts that I didn't really care to remember, and I nodded after each addition. I loved the way his eyes lit up when he talked about the ocean. He just seemed so happy that I couldn't bear to make him stop.

"I'm still listening," I said as I took my eyes off of him and let my gaze wander back out to the ocean. He made a noise of recognition before going on about how loggerheads could weight up to 300 pounds when fully grown.

I scanned the surface of the water for the creature. It wasn't there and I felt my chest drop in disappointment.

Hanji suddenly called out and told us to stop, that we were going to release the turtles there. She placed the final cooler down in the sand and ordered us into walls, an order we quickly heeded. I knelt down at the back of one of the walls, far away from the waves, and watched as Hanji turned the cooler on its side to let the baby turtles free. Armin was, once again, in the water with a flashlight to guide them out to the water.

Once we were done Hanji told us to pack up and head back to the bus. I walked along with Armin – who continued on with his spiel on loggerheads – until I reached the dune where my bike was parked. I dug my phone from my pocket and sent Hanji a quick text that I'd see her at school, that I was going home on my bike. She called out and waved her hand, her thumb sticking straight up in the air. I took it as an "a-okay" and put my phone back in my pocket.

"You going home?" Armin asked from beside me. I nodded.

"Yeah," I said. "I might take the long way, but I'm going home."

"Well, see you tomorrow. Or later today, I guess."

I nodded again and he left, a large smile on his face as he ran to catch up with Eren and Mikasa. I stood there for a moment, watching my classmates clamor onto the bus, until I shook myself out of my trance and began climbing up the sand dune. Upon reaching the top of the large grassy dune the bus cranked up and began to roll away. I waved at everyone and only Armin and Hanji waved back.

Standing my bike up and placing it on the pavement, I straddled the seat and placed my feet on the pedals. I began to slowly pump my legs, forcing the chain to wrap around the gears and propel the bike forward.

I couldn't resist. I looked out at the sea again, looking at the surface to catch a glimpse of the creature. Instead I received an image of the dark water and the crashing waves and the coarse sand. Nothing out of the ordinary.

I sighed and pedaled faster until I reached the side street that would lead me back to my house. For some reason I felt the urge to look back out at the beach, and so I did, letting my gaze sweep over the surface of the water and the edge of the shore.

My eyes fell on a human figure half sticking out of the ocean, lying on its back and obviously unconscious.

" _Just my fucking luck_ ," I muttered, quickly hopping off my bike and letting it clang to the ground. I leapt on the edge of a dune and slid down its side until I was crouching on the main beach, and then I ran to the place where the person lay.

My shoes dug into the loose sand as I raced across the beach, my breath coming out a bit short and a bit sharp and a bit cold. Once I made it to the place where the person was I saw broad shoulders, short hair, a sculpted chest and abdomen, and what appeared to be a spear protruding from the side of the ribs. This person was very clearly male and _very_ clearly injured. Dark red blood was quickly oozing from the wound and spilling onto the compacted sand.

My first instinct was to race over to him and pull the spear out, but I realized that a) pulling out the spear would only cause this guy to bleed out faster, and b) I couldn't get wet unless I wanted to become completely useless on land. My second instinct was to pull out my phone and call 911, something I was two digits into doing until I noticed a wave flip something out from under the water.

A tail fin.

A particularly large wave receded and took my breath with it, because below his hips weren't swim trunks or even a naked dick. No, beneath this man's stomach was an abundance of scales that looked all too similar to the ones I grew in the bath, to the ones I had in a permanent patch on my left arm, to the ones I knew were on the tail I had been seeing for the past two nights. Dragging my eyes lower I saw that he had a single appendage where his legs should be and a flipper at the bottom of it all.

He was like me.

I immediately deleted the "91" that I had tapped into my phone and replaced it with Hanji's number, pressing phone to my ear before my frazzled brain registered that I needed to press the call button first. I took the phone away from my face and tapped the icon, then put the device back to my ear and listened to it ring. I prayed to a god I didn't believe in that she would pick up.

She did, though it was on the fourth ring.

"Hanji Zoe, speaking!" she said cheerfully, though I knew she couldn't have gotten more than an hour of sleep the entire weekend.

"Hanji, it's Reaper," I said hurriedly. "Youwereamarineveterinarianbeforeyoustartedteachingatsina, right?"

"Slow down, girl," she said. "Repeat that?"

I swallowed and looked back down at the creature, the merman, the whatever the fuck he was. The blood was flowing more quickly.

"You were a marine veterinarian before you started teaching at Sina, right?" I asked.

"Yeah!" she exclaimed. "What's wrong? Is there a whale or a dolphin or-"

"You're not going to believe me unless you come and see for yourself."

"How am I supposed to know what to bring-"

"There's something with a spear in its ribs," I said. "Please come quickly. And bring Armin."

"How about I bring the whole team?"

"No," I said quickly. "Bad idea. This isn't… Just bring Armin. Please."

"What's going on over there, Reaper?"

" _Please_."

I heard a sigh from the other end of the line.

"Alright," she said. "I don't know how fast I can get there, though."

"Just get here as fast as you can."

"Okay. Okay."

A click, and the line went dead.

I sat down in the sand several feet from the dying creature. His breathing was labored, audible as his chest rose and fell. I clenched my fists and wished I weren't so useless, wished I could get in the water and help him, wished I had enough expertise to help him if I could get in the water.

Hanji soon arrived in her own car, Armin in tow. The blonde in question hopped out of the car, looking very confused and very stressed out at the same time. Hanji got out of the car shortly after and I waved my arms over my head to grab their attention. They both slid down a sand dune – Armin fell on his face when he reached the bottom and I would have laughed had it not been for the dying creature not ten feet away from me – and raced over to me.

"What's going on?" Armin asked when he got to me. Hanji held the same question in her eyes. I pointed behind me at the beached merman.

"Help him," I said hurriedly. "I don't think there's much time left."

"What-"

Hanji fell silent as she took in the sight. Armin followed soon after. They both looked back at me, Armin's eyes wide in shock and Hanji's wide in excitement.

"Help. Not capture and experiment on," I clarified harshly.

"Right on it," said Hanji, that same "I-could-kill-a-man" glare glinting off her glasses as she ran over to the unconscious merman and knelt down, hopefully getting to work.


	3. Chapter 3

CHAPTER 3

Reaper's POV

In the end we saved him. Or rather, Hanji and Armin saved him.

All three of us – Armin, Hanji, and me – were in the room where we were keeping the merman for the time being, me lying on the floor and the other two sitting in armchairs. I had my arm slung over my face so that the crook of my elbow shielded my eyes from the harsh fluorescent lights that were humming overhead. The merman was still unconscious and lying in a long, shallow tub of salty water. His torso was wrapped in red-stained bandages that would have to be changed at least once every hour with how they soaked up the water.

"What are we going to do now?" asked Armin.

"We're-"

"-not going to experiment on him," I interrupted Hanji. "We're going to let him heal and then we are going to let him go."

"Come on, Reaper. Don't tell me you're not curious. We could take a blood sample and see how its chromosomes work and its iron levels and-"

" _Hanji_ ," I said. "We can't just keep him here. He belongs in the ocean."

"Reaper's right, Hanji," agreed Armin.

Hanji sighed and capitulated, probably sliding farther down into her chair. I placed my arm by my side and winced at the light. I checked the time on my phone. 7:00.

"School starts in an hour," I said.

"We should go home to change and get our things," said Armin. Hanji hummed in agreement.

"I'll call you if it wakes up. I'll tell your teachers to let you take phone calls in class."

Armin and I nodded and stood up, him easily from his chair and me with some effort. We left, me with a backward glance at the merman in the tank.

It was 2:30, thirty minutes before the end of school, when I got the phone call. Mr. Bossard's eyebrows rose at the buzzing noise.

"Who's getting a call?" he asked the class from his desk. He had given us a study hall even though it was only the middle of August.

I raised my hand sheepishly and surreptitiously checked the caller ID. It was Hanji.

"Could I take it?" I asked. "I'll go into the hall."

"Is it Professor Zoe?" he asked. I nodded. "Go ahead."

"Thank you, sir," I said, getting up and taking my backpack with me.

Once I was out in the hall I tapped my phone's screen and pressed it to my ear.

"Is everything okay, Hanji?" I asked. There was a lot of splashing going on in the background, not to mention loud thumping bangs. "What's going on over there?"

"Just come quickly," she said hurriedly. "Armin's on his way and the thing is having a fucking tantrum and I can't-"

Another bang and I had to pull the phone away from my ear. I ended the call and went to the texting app, sending Hanji a quick message so I didn't end up with a burst eardrum. I ran back into the classroom to tell Mr. Bossard that Hanji needed me in the marine biology building before racing out again, backpack on my shoulders and breath coming out sharp and cold.

Given that Sina High School was one of the most elite private schools in the country it made sense that it would have some fairly elite programs, one of which was the marine biology program. Another perk that came with Sina being an elite private school was that it charged enough in tuition to make their programs pretty damn exceptional. That meant more than competent teachers, in-depth instruction, and, of course, state-of-the-art facilities in which those more than competent teachers could carry out that in-depth instruction. The marine biology program was no exception, boasting its own building that was separate from all the other sciences.

This building could only be accessed with the use of a keycard, so when I got there, out of breath, I roughly slid my card through the slot and watched as the indicator light turned green. I yanked open the door and barged inside, resuming my run. As I got closer to the place where the merman was being held I began to hear the tell-tale banging. I assumed that he was slamming his fists or himself against the glass of his tank.

When I turned the next corner I ran into Armin, whose eyes were wide in fear and confusion.

"Do you know what's going on?" he asked, also out of breath from running.

"I don't think the merman likes being in a tank," I said, pushing myself harder. Armin struggled to keep up but managed to do it somehow, and we burst into the room where we had left Hanji with the merman that morning.

It was empty except for the sloshing water in the shallow tub.

Armin and I looked at each other before bolting out of the room, letting the door slam behind us. I took out my phone and called Hanji. She picked up on the second ring.

"Yes?" she asked, sounding enormously frazzled.

"Where are you?" I asked, speed-walking down the halls in search of her.

"Titan," she said quickly. "Hurry."

The line went dead.

Titan was the name that last year's marine biology students had given the newest addition to the facility, a giant sixty-thousand gallon tank that had been a posthumous gift to the school from a famous marine biologist. Other names proposed included "Gigantica," "Poop on a Rock," and "Shark Fucker 2000." I turned to Armin.

"She's at Titan," I told him.

"Let's go, then."

I nodded and took off, Armin a short distance behind me.

Once we made it to the room where Titan was housed Armin threw the door open and raced inside. I stayed in the doorway to catch my breath.

Looking into the room it was the same as any other time I had seen it – lit up by windows, an unnaturally aqua tank, a staircase beside the tank which led up to a platform above the water – except for the fact that there was an irate merman with a bandage around his chest repeatedly slamming his entire body against the glass. I had every intention of going in there and slamming my fist against the glass to get his attention, but when I finally got a good look at him I froze.

His hair was short on the bottom but slightly longer on top, styled into a black undercut. His chest and abdomen were chiseled from spending his whole life swimming across currents, arms thick and strong, back densely corded with muscle. He had nails – claws, to be more exact – that looked like they could cut through the tank's bulletproof glass, his forearms were covered in patches of black scales, and his teeth were bared and sharp and white. He had high cheekbones and almost deathly pale skin and his ears were large and fluted, but what I couldn't keep my eyes off of was his tail.

His tail was at least four feet long and inky black (the same color as my own tail), peppered with different colored scales here and there. There were whites and pinks and golds and one orange scale near the base of his bottom flipper, and he had a pelvic fin on either side of his tail about halfway down the appendage. Both of his pectoral fins and his tail fin were sharp and defined like an aquatic mammal's, scales giving way to what looked like shark skin.

Despite how dangerous he looked, there was no denying that he was beautiful.

"Whoa," said Armin, obviously awed.

"We've got to calm him down!" Hanji exclaimed.

"How are we going to do that?" asked a new voice. I looked to the back of the room and saw Reiner Braun, Berthold Hoover, Eren Jaeger, Mikasa Ackerman, Connie Springer, Sasha Brouse, Jean Kirstein, and Marco Bodt looking at the furious merman.

Hanji had told other people, or other people had come to investigate the noise, or other people had been magically transported into the room. Whatever had happened there were now eight other people who knew about the merman. I wanted to scream but my voice caught in my throat.

"Maybe if we feed it it'll calm down," Reiner suggested.

The merman bristled at his words and slammed himself back against the glass so hard I was afraid it would crack.

"I've already tried that," Hanji said. "It won't eat any of the fish I toss in there."

I eyed the merman's sharp canines and suppressed a shiver. He wasn't eating the fish because they were already dead.

"Maybe its wound is hurting," suggested Connie.

"Or maybe it's herbivorous," Sasha added.

"Have you seen the _teeth_ on that thing? It's not herbivorous," said Jean. Marco nodded.

"Maybe it has to shit but it can't because it doesn't have an anus," said Eren. Mikasa jabbed him in the side with her elbow.

"I'm sure merpeople have other ways of excreting their waste," scoffed Jean. Eren was ready to hit him but his sister held him back.

The merman growled under the water and flung his tail against the glass, a loud boom resounding through the room. Berthold covered his ears in surprise.

Then the creature in the water opened its mouth and let out the most beautiful sound I had ever heard in my life. It was deep and smooth and in a language I had never heard and I was surprised it was able to permeate the water, but there it was, coming loud and clear through surface. I wondered why he would choose now to sing, but when I saw Hanji's eyes glaze over behind her glasses I remembered.

Sirens were merpeople who sang to lure sailors to their deaths, though I had only read about them being beautiful women who could voluntarily seduce men.

Hanji took a step towards the stairs leading up to the platform, and then another, and then another. The whole class was shortly behind her, lining up like they were going to slaughter. The merman's claws suddenly elongated and I realized that they _were_ going to slaughter. I looked around for anything that could hold them back or distract them or somehow keep them from getting in the water – was there a cover for the tank? – but there was nothing. I felt myself begin to hyperventilate but pushed it down, clenching my fists and taking a deep breath.

"Hey, asswipe!" I yelled, storming into the room to break the merman's concentration and banging my fist hard against the glass.

Everyone broke out of their stupors and stumbled backwards. The merman turned to look at me, his eyes narrowed in fury. I was fully prepared to find a harpoon and kill the son of a bitch, but then I noticed his eyes.

They were almost blindingly silver.

 _This_ was the creature I had been seeing, and he obviously recognized me in return, because those silver eyes widened infinitesimally and he stopped thrashing about in the water. I knew that everyone's eyes would be screwed up in shock and nervously flitting between me and the merman behind the glass, but I couldn't bring myself to tear my gaze away from him.

I unclenched my fist and laid it flat against the surface of the glass.

"I'm sorry we had to do this," I began, but something cut me off.

 _Fuck off!_ The merman's brows furrowed intimidatingly and he repeatedly slammed his own fist against the glass.

"I'm not fucking off just yet, asswipe," I said harshly, slamming my own fist against the glass in return.

His eyes widened to the point where I didn't know if he was going to be able to close them again. His mouth opened and closed again, a stream of bubbles coming out.

"What's going on, Reaper?" asked Hanji. I turned my head to look at her and saw that she was taking furious notes. "Is he saying something?"

I slowly turned back to the merman.

"You didn't say that out loud, did you?" I swallowed.

He waited a moment before shaking his head.

"Reaper-"

"Hold on a minute, Hanji," I said.

 _How can you hear me?_

"I don't know," I told him before I realized that I did know. I felt one of the scales on my left arm catch against my uniform shirt.

 _Humans can't hear us_.

"Us? Are there more of you?"

He didn't respond. I assumed he didn't want to give that away in case we wanted to capture more of his kind. Smart fish. Guy. Fish guy.

" _Reaper!_ " Hanji whined impatiently. "What's going _on?_ "

"Hold _on_ , Hanji!" I hissed at the teacher. "If you shut up I might tell you."

"But I wanna know-"

" _Hanji,_ " I said. "Could you… all of you… Could you leave us alone for a few minutes?"

Everyone looked amongst themselves, none of them wanting to leave and miss the show.

"Please?" I asked.

That got them, and they were reluctantly nodding their heads within five seconds. The ones who had been sitting down pushed on their knees to stand up. Everyone began making their ways to the door.

"And don't tell anyone about… any of this," I begged. "He's not going to be a Sea World attraction if I can help it."

"Of course!" exclaimed Hanji. "Wouldn't dream of it!"

"You literally invited eight other people into the room," I said. She shrugged and looked sheepishly around the room.

"It was just so exciting?" she asked rather than said, like she was looking for my approval of her shitty excuses.

"It doesn't matter," I said. "It happened. Just go."

She nodded and ushered everyone out of the room. Armin came up behind me and squeezed my free hand.

"Good luck," he said before leaving the room, an encouraging smile on his face. Hanji was the last to leave, and once she was gone I was alone with the merman.


	4. Chapter 4

CHAPTER 4

Reaper's POV

 _Why am I here?_

I looked back at the creature in the tank, eying his bandages.

"I found you washed up on the beach with a spear in your ribs. Hanji and Armin got the spear out and stopped the bleeding."

 _That doesn't explain why I'm here_.

"You're hear so you can heal before going back out into the ocean."

He nodded tensely, not really liking the concept.

"How long does it normally take a… What do you call your species?" I asked.

 _Merpeople._

"And you would call yourself a merman?"

 _I have a dick, yes_.

I held back a snort.

"Not everyone who has a dick identifies as a man up here," I said.

 _Strange_.

"I suppose so. How long does it normally take a merperson to heal?"

 _From something like this?_

I nodded.

 _I don't know. I've never heard of anyone surviving exile._

I remembered the spear. It wasn't made of metal or polished wood. It was roughhewn with a stone point, like it had been made by a civilization without normal industrial tools.

"Your own people did this to you, didn't they?" I asked.

 _Yes_.

"Why?"

He looked away.

"You don't have to tell me," I said. "God knows there are some things I'd rather not talk about."

He looked back at me, his face neutral but silvery eyes curious.

 _What is this place?_

"This is a school for human teenagers," I explained.

 _And you study the ocean?_

"I do. Not everyone does."

 _Are there going to be more humans here?_

I shook my head.

"Not if I can help it."

 _Are you the human leader?_

"No," I said, forcing myself not to laugh. "I'm just a student here."

 _You seem like the leader. You controlled the one with glass on its face._

"I think I'm flattered," I said. "I didn't control her. I just made her think. She has a habit of doing things before she thinks about them."

 _I see_.

"Why were you slamming yourself up against the glass?"

 _I don't like small spaces._

"I guess this is small compared to the ocean."

 _How remarkable an observation_.

I glared at him and a stream of bubbles escaped his nose. He had scoffed.

"How old are you?"

 _Human years?_

I nodded.

 _Three-hundred-forty._

"How old do merpeople usually live?"

 _We can live up to a thousand years._

"Wow."

Just then the end-of-school bell rang shrilly through the air, piercing my eardrums. I winced and the merman flinched.

 _What is that? I've been hearing it all day._

"That's the bell. It tells the students when classes are over and when they begin."

 _Will there be any more?_

I shook my head.

"Not today," I said. "That was the last one."

He nodded and slipped away from the glass, doing a quick flip and facing me again, this time upside down.

"Are you hungry?"

 _Yes._

"What do merpeople eat?"

 _It depends on what we can find. It's usually shellfish or crustaceans like lobsters. Sometimes we can snag a shark or a dolphin._

I was about to pull out my phone to jot that down when he said something that shouldn't have shocked me.

 _If we can get a human we feast._

I froze for a moment before allowing myself to look at him again. He had his sharp teeth bared in what I could only interpret as a smirk. He was trying to scare me.

"Good to know," I said, not letting any of my fear show. "I won't be getting in the water with you any time soon."

 _I'm sure it would be fun._

"Fuck off, asswipe."

He chuckled under the water.

 _How old are you?_

"Fifteen."

 _Human years?_

I nodded.

 _You are very young._

"I know."

 _Are the others that young?_

"No. The other students you met are seventeen or eighteen and Hanji is… We don't know how old Hanji is."

 _She acts like a child_.

"She's very excited about you. She's excited about everything, though. Don't get cocky about it."

 _Wouldn't dream of it._

I chuckled and ran my hands over my face. I hadn't slept since 2:30 that morning, and it was now – according to my phone – 3:05. I had been awake for over twelve hours straight. Sighing, I slipped my phone back into my pocket and turned around to grab a chair.

Levi's POV

It had shoulder-length black hair and icy blue eyes, pale skin and a kind of… coral mouth. The human was cute, I guess. In the way that lower creatures like puffer fish were cute. Or in the way that children were cute. Because that was what it was – a child. Only fifteen years old.

It grabbed something to sit on and dragged it back in front of the glass, planting its ass on the chair looking up at where I floated.

 _Are you going to get me food?_

"I'm not sure how well that's going to work," it said.

 _In what way?_

"I don't… _do_ water. I don't like getting wet."

 _I've seen other humans playing in the ocean before._

"Not all of us like water. If I can't get wet then I can't catch anything."

 _What about those floating floors? I've seen humans stick strings into the water and pull out fish._

"That takes a fishing license and a boat, things I don't have."

 _Then what am I going to do about food? I do have to eat, you know._

"You're going to have to deal with pre-killed fish for a while, I guess."

I grimaced. Dead fish were horrible, always having this pungent smell and bitter taste to them.

"Hey, I know you're made for killing things but you're going to have to work with me here."

 _Why don't you like getting wet?_

The human froze, its fist clenching on its lap. It stayed like that for a moment before speaking again.

"Remember when I didn't make you talk about why your people stabbed you?" it asked. "It's time to return the favor."

I shrugged.

 _Whatever_.

The human pulled some kind of flat box out of its clothes and tapped it several times. It sighed and looked back up at me.

 _What is that?_

"It's called a cellular telephone, but most people call them cell phones or phones. There are a lot of different kinds, but this kind has a feature where you can write out a message and instantly send it to someone who also has a cell phone."

 _Why did you sigh at it?_

"Because Hanji keeps contacting me. She has about twenty questions she wants me to ask you."

 _Like what?_

The human looked down at its phone thing and tapped it several times, looking at the questions that this _Hanji_ wanted it to ask me.

"The first thing she wants to know is where you keep your dick but I'm not going to ask you that," the human said, not looking up at me. I stopped myself from laughing. "The next thing she wants to know is if there are more of you, but you keep using words like 'us' and 'we' so there's no real need to ask that. And then… Then she wants me to ask you how your – Jesus _Christ_ , Hanji."

 _What?_

"Most of these are about sex or mating or whatever you call it."

 _What's so bad about that?_

The human looked up from its device.

"Mating isn't a taboo subject in your culture, is it?"

I shook my head.

 _Is it not something you talk about on land?_

"You _can_ , but it's frowned upon. If you talk about it in public people will take their children away from you and give you some pretty nasty glares."

 _Do the children not mate?_

The human looked like it was choking. It coughed several times before answering.

" _No_ ," it said. "Human children don't know anything about mating. Do merpeople children-"

 _Sexual acts are pleasurable and the children can't reproduce until they're about one-hundred-thirty, so there isn't any harm in it._

"That's… That's very different."

 _The scales don't start showing up until they're about one-hundred-fifty, though. That's when it's legal to reproduce._

"Scales?"

 _When we mate one of our scales changes to the color of our partner's tail._

The human eyed my many different-colored scales.

"I see," it said.

 _Does anything like that happen to humans?_

"No. There are no physical signs unless you count scratches and bite marks." I almost winced.

 _Is human coupling so violent?_

"It can be. I wouldn't really know."

 _You have never mated._

It shook its head.

"I don't like anyone enough to do that."

I quirked a brow and it clarified itself.

"Human mating has a lot of emotions tied to it. It's not something you do with just anybody."

 _Why?_

It shrugged.

"I think it has to do with the culture in western countries. Have you ever heard of Christianity?" I nodded. "Most western countries were founded by Christians and were, at some point, ruled by the Church. Not many countries are theocracies anymore, but the weird feelings about mating remain. They're like the vestiges of Church authority. Not that it's necessarily a good or a bad thing."

I blinked. This creature was smart.

 _It doesn't mean much to merpeople._

"I gathered," it said.

The human's phone made a buzzing sound, so it picked it up and looked at it. It rolled its eyes.

 _Is it Hanji?_

"No. Armin."

 _Who is Armin?_

"The blonde boy that squeezed my hand."

 _What does Armin want?_

"He says that Jean and Eren are fighting again," it said, picking up its bag from beside it on the ground. It flung one of the bag's straps over its shoulder. "I've got to go break it up. I'm the only one they listen to."

 _Why?_

"Because one time I punched Jean hard enough that I gave him a concussion."

I chuckled.

 _Will you bring me food?_

"I'll try. If it's not me then it'll be Hanji or Armin."

The phone buzzed and the human rolled its eyes again, fishing the device from its clothing. It looked at it.

"Hanji wants to know what your name is," it said.

 _What is yours?_

"Zoralee, but most people call me Reaper."

 _Mine is Levi_.

The human smiled at me. It was a small smile, but a smile nonetheless.

"Nice to meet you, Levi. And please don't kill anyone while I'm gone."

 _What about when you come back?_

"Fuck off."

I chuckled again and did a quick lap around the enclosure they were keeping me in. When I got back to the glass the human was gone, having disappeared through the door which was easing itself closed.

Reaper. I liked this human.


	5. Chapter 5

CHAPTER 5

Levi's POV

I was surrounded by humans for twelve hours a day, sometimes longer. I wasn't sure how I was managing to sleep as much as I did – boredom, maybe – with the humans constantly watching me, but I was probably getting the most sleep I'd ever gotten. I actually felt rested for once. I probably had enough energy to shatter the glass that kept me in that godforsaken tank, but I realized that I'd probably end up hurting myself in the process, so I left it alone.

Most of the humans were… tolerable. At best. The one with glass on its face – that was the one called Hanji – was the most annoying one, and it was there almost all the time. I spent most of my time in its presence shooting it glares while it took notes on me doing literally nothing. There were other humans though – the blonde one called Armin was nice. It left me alone and read most of the time, smiling when it caught my eye over the pages of its book. There were Sasha and Connie, a human female and a human male that always came into the room together. I fleetingly wondered if they were mated before realizing that I didn't really care. There was a tall one called Berthold and a muscular one called Reiner, one that was easily angered called Eren and its sister called Mikasa, a freckled one called Marco and one with the face of a seahorse called Jean. Occasionally a tall one with almost-blonde hair came in and stood beside Hanji, nervously flitting its eyes between the brown-haired human and myself. Whenever the glass on Hanji's face glinted in the light the almost-blonde one – I had heard it called Moblit – jumped.

And then there was Reaper. Reaper was the one that was there most often, something for which I was grateful. It always brought fish that tasted much better than the crap Hanji tried to give me, even if they were still dead. It had told me that humans had markets where they could buy dead fish. I thought it was odd that they didn't just go out and catch them themselves, and that had brought on a whole discussion about human careers and time management.

I hated to admit it, but humans were interesting.

I was, apparently, just as interesting to Reaper. It seemed to be even more interested in me than Hanji, though it wasn't fucking insane about it. It would ask about merpeople culture and laws and religion and anything else it could wrap its puny brain around (I didn't actually think that Reaper's brain was terribly puny, but I would never admit that). I told it that I had been a warrior for my people before I was exiled, fighting against other clans and pods of merpeople when duty called and hunting for large ocean creatures when not at war, though we were usually at war. I told it that we were not particularly violent at war, but instead liked to play mind games with the enemy. I told it that merpeople had fairly logical laws based on group survival and identity. I told it that merpeople tended to scoff at the idea of a deity, though some practiced a religion in which they worshipped the sea itself. I told it all of this and it drank it all up, though it didn't take a single note in the process.

That day, about four days after the humans had caught me, it had brought what I was told was called catfish, a bottom-feeding freshwater fish. I thought it smelled terrible but it tasted alright, though not as good as the pre-killed tilapia it had brought the previous day. It had also brought another phone-like device, this one coming in two parts and hinging in the middle. It set it down on its lap as it rested in one of the chairs, repeatedly tapping buttons on the bottom portion of the device.

 _What is that?_

"It's called a laptop computer, but most people just call them laptops," it said without looking away from it.

 _What is it for?_

"A lot of things. It depends on the kind of functions you want it to have. I use mine to write and to go on the Internet, primarily."

 _Internet?_

It almost laughed, unsuccessfully covering it up with a cough.

"It's a network composed of all the computers in the world," it explained. "It doesn't actually physically exist, but you can store and find information on it. Not that that's what most people use it for."

 _What do most people use it for?_

"Not sure. Probably looking at cats or pornography."

 _What are you using the laplap for?_

"Laptop. I'm using it to write an essay that I _should have started a week ago but was too stupid to do it_."

I nodded and did a quick lap of the tank before going up to the surface and grab another piece of the fish that Reaper had placed on the platform. I dug in, using my nails to cut little chunks out of the meat and spear it into my mouth, and watched the human work on its essay.

After I had finished the catfish I went up to the surface and grabbed the last piece out of its packaging, leaving an empty box on the platform. I dove down under the water and swam around as I ate, shaking the numbness from my tail. Once I finished the fish swimming became boring. I found myself wishing that Reaper would talk to me again. I knew it was ridiculous to want something of a lesser species to communicate with me, but I couldn't shake the desire.

 _Hey_.

Reaper hummed to acknowledge that it was listening.

 _Talk to me. I'm bored._

It smiled like it was a joke.

 _I'm not kidding_.

"I know you're not kidding, Levi. It just reminded me of a kid."

 _What is a kid?_

"It's slang for a child."

 _I'm not a child_.

"I never said you were. I just said that-"

 _Whatever. I don't care_.

"If you want me to talk to you you might want to try not being such an ass."

 _No can do, sweetheart._

Reaper scoffed.

 _What is the essay about?_

"It was an essay topic of my own choice, so I chose homophobia."

 _What is that?_

"The fear of or disgust towards homosexuals or anyone that's not straight."

 _What is a homosexual?_

It tried to cough to cover up a laugh again.

 _Don't laugh just because I didn't grow up in your culture._

"I know. I'm sorry. Homosexuality is when you're sexually attracted to someone of your own sex."

 _We call homosexuals "two-spirit people."_

"I think Native American tribes use the same term, though I think they also use it to describe transgendered people."

 _Homosexuals are normally exiled._

Reaper winced.

"They used to do that here, too. They still do in some countries."

 _You don't approve._

It shook its head.

"I don't think it makes a rat's ass of a difference who gets your rocks off as long as you're a good person."

 _Why?_

It closed its laptop and turned to fully face me. I had the feeling that I shouldn't have started the conversation.

"I think everyone deserves to be treated with respect," it began. "If you're gay – that's slang for homosexual – you're still a person. You just experience sexual attraction differently. A lot of people think that homosexuality is unnatural but you see lions and zebras and chimps and penguins in homosexual relationships, so that rules that out. Then there's the argument that it's against the Christian God because of this one passage in the Bible – that's Christianity's holy text – that supposedly forbids it, but I honestly think that passage forbids rape rather than homosexuality. And even if I'm wrong and it _does_ forbid gay sex it doesn't forbid gay _ness_. There's no way to control it, so it doesn't make sense that it would be intrinsically bad. Those are the only real arguments against it, and yet they have such a strong hold on people that they're willing to kill and maim and belittle people because of something that they can't control."

It looked down at its feet.

"Sorry," it said. "I just get really worked up about that."

 _Are you a homosexual?_

It grimaced.

"Not terribly sure. I don't think so, but there are times when I think I might be. I know Marco's gay, and so is Armin," it said. "And if you have a problem with Armin being gay then you can fuck right off."

I did a flip and then came back to the glass, upside down this time, my arms crossed in front of my chest.

 _I don't really care what anyone puts their dick in as long as I'm not on the receiving end._

Reaper actually laughed this time, and it was quiet and melodic and I found myself wanting to hear it again. Its face looked relieved, like it actually valued my opinion.

"This might actually help me on my essay," it said.

 _Glad to have been of service_.

It smiled at me, a small smile, and then got back to work.

Reaper's POV

Levi was infinitely interesting, and not just because he was a merman. He was sarcastic and witty and crude, and I found myself thinking of him as a friend rather than as a science experiment. There was no way in hell I would ever tell him that, though; I knew how he felt about humans – that they were gross and petty and stupid (and I couldn't really argue with him). I also knew that he would probably eat me if he got the chance, so it wasn't like he was terribly fond of me.

The day after we had our a-bit-too-deep conversation about homosexuality – this new day was a Friday, and it was about five o'clock when, thanks to a long calculus tutoring session, I made it to the marine building – I came into Titan's room and found Hanji up on the platform with a roll of bandages in her hand.

"Hey, Levi. Hey, Hanji," I greeted. "What's going on?"

Hanji sighed.

"He's not letting me change his bandages."

We had found some water retardant bandages at a medical supply shop so we only had to change them about twice a day; still, Levi seemed to hate the experience with a passion. I wondered if it was because he didn't like to be touched or if he just didn't like to be touched by humans.

The merman in question was making lazy laps around Titan, his speckled tail glinting in the sunlight that came in through the tops of the windows (we had put black-out curtains over most of the windows' surface so that nobody from the outside could see Levi, though we did leave a bit of space at the very top to let light pour in). He looked at me but said nothing, instead opting to shoot Hanji a glare out of the corners of his eyes.

"What's wrong, buddy?" Hanji asked Levi. Levi's stare became even more annoyed and I sighed in exasperation.

"Don't call him that," I said. "He's not a dog."

"He's just so pretty, though!"

Levi rolled his eyes and swam to the far side of the tank.

"I'm pretty sure the reason he doesn't want you changing his bandages is because you're annoying him," I said.

"What do I do to annoy him?"

I looked over at the merman for answers.

 _It stares at me all the time and takes notes on everything I do. And whenever it changes my bandages it touches me too much._

"He says that you stare too much and you touch him too much when you're changing his bandages," I said. Hanji looked down into the water.

"Is that true?" she asked Levi. He nodded. "I'll try not to stare too much but there's not much I can do about the touching thing."

 _It literally trails its fingers down my stomach every five seconds._

"Somehow I don't believe that," I told the teacher. She threw her hands in the air, frustrated.

"What am I supposed to do, then? His bandages have to get changed or else the wound's going to get infected."

"Maybe get Moblit to do it."

"Moblit is too scared of him."

 _Moblit is more scared of Hanji than of me_.

"Armin was a Boy Scout. Maybe he knows first aid."

 _The blonde one is too twitchy_.

"Alright then," I said, trying not to show my annoyance. Levi was being a drama queen.

Hanji sat down on the platform and rested her chin against her fist, sighing shallowly. Then she stilled and her glasses glinted in the light refracted off the surface of the water. Both Levi and I knew that wasn't a good sign.

"You did that internship at Marco's father's vet clinic, right, Reaper?" she asked. I nodded hesitantly. "Did you ever do any post-op bandaging?"

"Ye- _Wait_. I am _not_ going to-"

"Come on. You're the only one he really tolerates, you can communicate with him, you're not scared of him, and you know how to apply bandages. You're perfect!"

"I also don't do water, Hanji," I reminded her. "He's just enough of an asshole to pull me in."

 _Thanks_.

"You're welcome."

"If Levi _promises_ not to pull you into the water will you do it?" asked Hanji.

"He'll still be wet. I can't… I can't get wet. It's not-" I stammered nervously, feeling one of my hands shaking at the mere prospect of getting wet. "I can't get wet. Don't make me get wet."

Levi looked at me strangely, like he couldn't figure out why I hated the water so much. One of the scales on the back of my left forearm caught against my shirt and I had to reach up to adjust the sleeve.

"How about this," Hanji proposed. "We get him a towel and dry off his upper half. What about that?"

That would have been fine, but I didn't know how Levi's body would react to being dry. I looked to him.

"Is it okay for you to be dry?" I asked. He nodded. "And would it be okay if I changed your bandages?" He hesitated, but soon nodded again.

"Alright!" squealed Hanji, standing up and scurrying down the stairs. "I'll be right back with a towel!"

"Okay."

Hanji ran too excitedly out of the room and let the door close by itself, leaving me alone with Levi. His bandage had a dark red spot on the side.

"I'm sorry about her," I said. "She can be a bit… much sometimes."

He scoffed as if to say it was obvious.

I dumped my backpack on the ground near the chair I had claimed as my own over the past four days, sitting down shortly after. I ran my hands over my face and sighed, exhausted. When I looked back over at Levi he was making bored laps around Titan.

"I'm so sorry you're here," I sighed again. "I wish you didn't have to be."

 _You and me both, kid._

The door banged against the wall and Hanji reappeared, several different colored towels slung over her arms. She raced up the stairs beside Titan and dumped the towels on the platform.

"Come on, Reaper! It's bandage time!" she exclaimed loudly. I sighed and pushed myself out of the chair.

"Fine. But you have to leave," I said.

"What? Why?"

"Because you annoy him and I don't want him to suddenly change his mind about pulling me in."

Hanji looked like she was about to protest, but one look from Levi silenced her. She threw her hands up defensively.

"Fine," she capitulated. "Fine. I'll leave."

She reached down into her lab coat's left pocket and pulled out a small object, tossing it to me. I caught it clumsily and examined it. A tape measure. She leapt down the stairs in one great bound, and I marveled at the fact that she hadn't broken any bones.

"Take some measurements for me, will ya?" she asked, walking out the door instead of waiting for a response.

"I'm not measuring his dick!" I called as the door fell closed. I heard Levi chuckle in my head. "Shut up."

 _I said nothing_.

"You laughed, though."

 _Excuse me, princess._

I rolled my eyes but couldn't fight the smile that pulled up my lips. I made my way up the stairs to the platform and deposited the tape measure on its surface. Levi swam over to me and stuck his head out of the water, resting his crossed arms on the platform and his chin on the backs of his hands.

"Can you get up onto the platform on your own?" I asked. I prayed that he could.

 _Four-eyes likes to help me, but I can do it on my own._

"Good. Because I'm not helping you."

 _Oh thank you, benevolent goddess_ -

"Get your ass on the platform," I snapped. He snickered and I was surprised that it actually made a sound. "Can you… talk? Like humans?"

"Yes." His voice was deep and melodic, if a bit raspy with disuse, sending an involuntary shiver down my spine. I cursed myself for having a thing for voices. "We just don't have much occasion to, seeing as we live under the fucking water."

"I… I see," I said. I shook my head. "Anyway, just get up here."

He pressed down on the platform and shoved himself up, dragging himself across until he was fully out of the water. Once completely on the platform I tossed him a towel and told him to dry himself off.

"How do you do that?" he asked.

I sighed.

"You've never dried yourself off," I said. "Of course."

"Excuse me for not living on land."

"I have the capacity to kill you right now."

"How?" he scoffed. "I'm the one with claws and sharp teeth."

"If I told you then you'd find a counterattack."

"Fair enough, human."

I sighed again and plopped down onto the platform beside the merman, crossing my legs and leaning over to grab a towel. When I pulled it into my lap I saw that it had unraveling edges and pills across its surface.

" _Fucking Hanji_ ," I muttered.

 _What is it?_

"Going back to the brain thing, I see," I said, unfolding the towel and gathering two handfuls of it in my hands. "Alright. Time to dry off."

 _Fun_.

"You bet."

I pressed the towel to his back and started rubbing, keenly aware of how muscular he was. It was only through exquisite effort that I controlled the flush that threatened to flood my cheeks.

"Do you have the general idea?" I asked him after finishing my work on his back.

 _Yes._

I dropped the towel into his lap. And leaned back until I was lying down on the platform.

"You finish the rest, then," I yawned.

 _Gee. Thanks._ He started drying his chest anyway.

"I'm changing your bandages and keeping your wound from getting infected. You can do a little work."

Once he was finished drying his body to my satisfaction I sat up, taking another towel and rubbing it against his hair. That done, I tossed the used towels aside and drug the roll of bandages over to where Levi and I sat.

"Okay," I said. "Bandage time."

Levi raised his arms and I unpeeled the line of waterproof tape from his skin. I then unwound the bandages from around his chest and threw them over the side of the platform, hearing them plop wetly on the ground. I quickly dried my hands on another towel. Now was not the time to grow a tail.

 _What is it with you and water?_ Levi asked, right on cue.

"That is for me to know and for you to – hopefully – never find out," I said, finding the end of the roll of waterproof bandages. I picked my thumbnail under the edge and, finally, pulled the end loose. "Lift up your arms."

He obeyed me, wincing, and I began rolling the bandages around his chest. Once I was done I bit off a bit of medical tape and secured them snugly to his skin.

"There. All done," I said.

 _Thank God_.

"You're welcome."

 _Fuck off, human._

I chuckled and watched as Levi slid off the platform and back into the water, making a lap before coming back to me. He rested his arms on the platform and placed his chin in the gap between them, looking at my knees like he was in thought.

"What is it?" I asked him.

 _I was just thinking how strange legs are._

I snorted.

 _And how I kind of want a pair_.

I paused.

"Is… Is that possible? For merpeople to grow legs?" I asked. He hesitated before nodding.

 _Not all merpeople can do it. In our clan only the royal family and warriors can become human._

"Didn't you say you were a warrior? Couldn't you sprout legs and walk out of here?"

He shook his head.

 _I_ was _a warrior. That title and its corresponding abilities were stripped from me when I was exiled._

I was silent for a moment. Then:

"Why were you exiled, Levi?" I asked. He sighed.

 _My tail is black_.

"You were exiled… because your tail is black?"

He nodded.

 _There's a merpeople superstition that tail color reflects the quality of one's soul. Yellow is for happy souls, purple is for merpeople of royal blood, etc._

"So black tails belong to merpeople with evil souls," I said, feeling a bit numb as I pictured my own tail in the bathtub, as inky black as a night sky.

Levi nodded again.

 _Our tails can change colors, so whenever a merperson is born with a black tail they're given three-hundred-fifty years for it to turn. I was officially exiled early on counts of treason, but everyone knew why I was really getting banished._

I nodded once, slowly.

"Thank you for telling me," I said, rubbing my scales through my sleeve. He shrugged.

We fell into a comfortable silence, a silence I used to assess my place in all of this.

Humans couldn't just grow fins, but merpeople could grow legs; that must have meant that I wasn't human (that thought alone sent a shiver down my spine). I obviously didn't belong on the land if I was a mermaid, but I couldn't just go into the ocean on a whim, especially not with a black tail.

I sighed. Even if I wanted to disappear into the sea I was destined for a life of isolation and hidden whispers following me wherever I went.

 _What's with the sigh?_ Levi asked.

I shook my head.

"It's nothing I want to talk about," I said.

I felt two succinct vibrations in my uniform pants pocket, so I dug my hand into the pocket and fished out my phone. The screen was lit up with a couple of junk e-mails from Pottery Barn, e-mails which I quickly swiped away. My eyes drifted up to the time.

" _Shit_ ," I mumbled, stuffing my phone back into my pocket and standing up on the platform.

 _What is it?_

"I'm supposed to be somewhere in fifteen minutes," I told him. "I've gotta go."

I went down the stairs and retrieved my backpack, zipping it up and slinging it over my shoulders. Levi had followed me by swimming down to the bottom of his tank, and he was now hovering upside down above the tank floor, watching me pack up with a bored expression on his face.

 _Where are you going?_

There was something in his voice – even though it was just in my head – that made me think he'd miss me. I smiled a hidden smirk. The human-hater was going to miss me.

"I have to go home," I said. "I'm supposed to help with dinner tonight."

 _You just got here, though_.

"Is someone going to miss me?"

 _I get bored_.

I laughed and leaned against the door to push it open.

"I'll see you tomorrow, Levi," I said, a smile on my face. Levi waved me on and I left, heading left towards the exit door.


End file.
